Category Archives: Restaurants & Reviews

Europa in Orinda

Leave a reply

Reuben at Europa in Orinda, California

Matthew and I drove over the hill to Orinda today.  Orinda is an upscale little city a bit deeper into Contra Costa County that I have always heard good things about.  We thought we’d check out the food situation there.  The drive was nice, if a bit hair-raising.  I hate driving on freeways and try to avoid tunnels and bridges, so we took windy, country roads that permeate the East Bay Regional Park District.  The area we drove through is so beautiful and so unspoiled, it was hard to believe we were only a few miles from cities right near the Bay Bridge.  Driving that high-elevation route with its two-lane roads in the dark or in rainy weather might have you sleeping with the fishes, if you ask me.  Orinda is attractive and quiet with a small downtown with an old theatre and some shops and restaurants.  Strangely enough, there was a Hofbrau, called Europa (64 Moraga Way, Orinda).  We were hungry so we ate there, and I have to say it was fine, but not as good as Harry’s Hofbrau (any of the locations) and perhaps on par with Brennan’s in Berkeley, but certainly not worth a special trip if you live on our side of the hill.  There was good turkey, which is essential, as well as decent turkey gravy and mashed potatoes.  Matt had a Reuben, which was generous and tasty, he reported.  We were kind of bummed because we wanted something more interesting than Hofbrau, but, not knowing the town and seeing little obvious choice, we suffered from not doing our homework.

Orinda theater in California

Dimsum at Asian Pearl in Richmond

Leave a reply

Calamari tentacle on chopsticks

Matt and I treated ourselves to dim sum today.  Asian Pearl at Pacific East Mall in Richmond, where else?  We seriously over ordered, having circled nine items on the menu and then grabbing two on impulse as they made their way around the dining room.  Here you go:  green tea dumplings; Northern China dumplings; Shanghai dumplings; steamed beef balls; tofu with hoisin sauce; steamed tripe with ginger and scallions; steamed BBQ pork buns; shrimp rice noodles; salt and pepper squid; har gow; shrimp and scallop dumplings.  Matt loves dumplings, so I let him go hog-wild and figured I’d resign myself to eating them, too, though I’m not as fond of them.  Next to us were two big guys unable to defend five small plates while we were stacking steamers just to fit everything we ordered on the table.  They enjoyed Matthew relishing dumpling after dumpling, not missing a beat with the various sauces, and then punctuating his dumpling orgy with a few tripe shards and squid tentacles, happily chatting away.  I defended all three beef balls and quite a bit of the large plate of fried silken tofu.  If you come to this place, give the tofu a try — it is not at all greasy and has a nice crust.  They also serve good XO sauce rice noodles, which are your basic sheet rice noodles with scallions, rolled and then charred in a wok with the XO sauce and, I would guess, a bit of soy sauce, and served dry-style.  After packing up leftovers we broke into the green tea dumplings, with their odd, blackish-green and grainy semi-liquid filling.  Funny what you wind up liking when you try things.

Table full of dimsum in 2007

Castro Street Festival

Leave a reply
Castro Street Festival in SF in 2007

Castro Street Festival in SF in 2007

Matt went to the Castro Street Festival today with friends Ross and Ken.  He’s been hopping over to SF every weekend for this or that event and then having a bite over there and reporting back on quality.  Today they stopped in at Slider’s Diner (449 Castro Street, SF) for burgers and thought they were pretty good.  Matt told me that Welcome Home had closed, which is too bad since we went there often when we first moved here in 1995.  They met up with Gino Ramos later in the day and went over to the Dignity service in the Sunset to connect with Gino’s partner, Paul Riofski.  Paul schlepped them south to have dinner at Harry’s Hofbrau (1297 Chess Drive, Foster City).  Harry’s = big hunks of meat.  You can get a serious turkey or roast beast groove on at Harry’s while feeling like you stepped back in time.  This must be the only place you can get a side of carrot and raisin salad with your Swiss steak, and where your mashed potatoes happily swim under a lake of gravy.

The Stinking Rose in SF and their bagna calda

Leave a reply

Bagna cauda garlic in olive oil appetizer

At The Stinking Rose (325 Columbus, SF) they have an appetizer called ‘bagna calda.’  This is something I really like, so I make my own version at home all the time.  It tastes best with fresh garlic, but go ahead and use that large tub o’ garlic from Costco.  This is more or less a dish of garlic confit that you eat by sopping it up with hunks of crusty bread.  You need:  many whole cloves of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, anchovies (if you like), red pepper flakes (if you like), a piece of lemon and a glazed clay sauté pan (or any heavy-gauge sauté pan).  If you have a flame tamer, use it.  You do:  put the garlic in the sauté pan and pour olive oil in to cover the cloves completely.  Add a bit of black pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Set the pan on a very, very, very low flame and let her rip for about an hour and a half – until the garlic is soft and golden brown.  You do not want to fry the garlic!  Check it often to make sure you are not frying the garlic!  If you like anchovies, chop up a few and toss them in whenever you like.  If you want them liquefied, add at the beginning.  If you want them macho, add at the end.  If you don’t use anchovies you will need to add salt to this dish.  Squeeze a little lemon in right before you serve it.  Note:  you can place the ingredients in a casserole and bake in a low oven until the garlic is soft – but not the lemon, which should always be added right before service.  Have a bunch of baguettes and some hearty wine available.  Once you make this a few times you can customize it to taste, as I do.  The version I photographed as it was on the stove has a few green olives and has a ways to go.

One Market in SF for lunch

Leave a reply

Ate lunch at One Market in San Francisco because we had to go to UCSF for some medical stuff and felt we deserved a good thing.  Now, I had heretofore not been bowled over by One Market (1 Market Street (duh), SF), but it was the fanciest thing close to BART and we wanted to see if the lunch was any good anyway.  Since we had no reservation, they seated us at the chef’s counter, where you get to watch the cooks while perched on a comfy bar seat.  I highly recommend this location.  If you are at the front counter you are almost on top of the sauté station, which should be interesting to most people since it’s an active part of the kitchen with lots of fire and pans and ingredients flying around.  Matthew ordered the Dungeness crab cakes and the ahi tuna burger.  I chose the roast chicken and chick pea fries.  The crab cakes were delicious and had ample crab, but they were so tiny they were lost on their large plate and just not worth the $16.50 price tag.  The rest of the meal was perfection.  My organic roast chicken – a split half – was served with natural jus and was moist and flavorful from skin to bone.  The chick pea fries, served with a terrific harissa aioli, were light and crisp and not at all mushy or greasy;  I was easily able to handle them like potato fries.  Matthew’s tuna burger was made with a generous, rounded piece of solid ahi, cooked rare.  It’s normally served with salad but Matt substituted what they call ‘big fries,’ which was a great decision, since those fries came off like a cross between roasted potatoes and steak fries.  Everything was well seasoned, particularly the chicken, which they coaxed great things from, but, honestly, next time I may just make a meal of the two sides and forgo the rest, which should be no problem since they seem to keep the Acme pain epi coming.  $65.59 before a generous tip for superior service.